The day I bought my first house, I show up late to a rehearsal dinner for a good friend's (Brandon's) wedding that I am a groomsman in (great first impression). When I show up to the rehearsal dinner, the groom pulls me aside to inform me I will be walking down the aisle with a gal named Alex who he and his bride-to-be want to setup with me. My sarcastic response was simply, "Sure Brandon, I'm sure that will work." What started with small talk at those wedding festivities turned to Facebook messages, which led to texting, which led to facetimes, which led to out of state visits, which led to 10 months of dating, which led to getting engaged in June of '24, which is leading to our wedding in June of '25.

Our story began, for me at least, on June 4th, 2023. One of my best childhood friends, Anna, had asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding, and she texted me a picture of the guys who were going to be the groomsmen in the wedding. “Just wanted to let you know this guy on the right is single and he’s in the wedding party…that’s all.” I was then informed that we were possibly going to be paired up to walk down the aisle together, seeing as we were both single and the bride and groom thought we might be compatible. I was intrigued by the handsome stranger in the picture she sent me, but after finding out he lived in Michigan, I wasn’t expecting much to come out of our brief time spent together.

Flash forward to the wedding rehearsal: all bridesmaids and groomsmen were present and paired up accordingly, but Ben seemed to be MIA. He did not arrive in Ohio, where the wedding was happening, until during the rehearsal dinner. As a result, we ended up not meeting or speaking until the day of the wedding, and because the bride and groom were kept separate all day, it wasn’t until we were literally about to walk down the aisle together for the wedding ceremony that we said our first words to each other. I was pretty nervous, as it was the first wedding I had ever been in and we hadn’t been able to rehearse together. That changed after we briefly introduced ourselves and he said something to make me laugh, relaxing me a bit before our trip down the aisle.

After the ceremony, we were able to get to know each other a little better (shoutout to Anna’s huge family for giving us time to talk during their family photos!) I quickly realized that we had good chemistry and I really enjoyed talking to Ben. While I was not able to get his number after the reception (we later found out we were circling the building trying to find each other), I knew he had a Facebook and added him as a friend. He added me back and sent me a message, and thus began our conversation. Many Facebook messages and texts later, we planned to meet up in Columbus on Labor Day weekend. We saw each other a couple of times, and the second date was when we decided to make things official. We were long distance from the start of our relationship, and while it has not been easy it has been very worthwhile. We got engaged in June 2024 and are so excited to tie the knot in June 2025!